Orange Crayon
by Zeao
Summary: "Life is more fun if you play games." -Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald. Naruto wants Kakashi and Iruka to get along. However, Kakashi seems to enjoy driving Iruka crazy. But what if Iruka retaliates? Kakashi and Iruka
1. Why Can't You and Iruka Get Along?

Team 7 was on their way back from a successful mission. Naruto had worked noticibly harder on this mission to put Kakashi in good spirits. He was walking with his hands up behind his head, grinning. Even Sauske didn't seem as down as usual. Naruto rolled his eyes as Sakura walked behind the dark-haired boy, talking incessantly. The blonde wanted to ask his team leader a question that was pressing on his mind.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto approached the silver-haired pervert who was currently reading Icha Icha a small ways ahead of them.

"Hnn?" He replied without looking up.

"What's the deal with you and Iruka-sensei?"

Kakashi turned a page. "Nothing." He said dismissively.

"Nothing?" Naruto repeated, completely unbelieving.

"Nothing." This time Kakashi looked up and gave Naruto a smile. Albeit, an absolutely fake smile that clearly said: keep asking questions and we'll see just how good you are at dodging shuriken.

Completely unfazed, he proceeded :"There must be _something_! You go out of your way to hand in messy mission reports! Like the time you bought coffee just to spill it all over the paper then crumple it! While it was still wet!"

The silver-haired jounin grinned at the memory. "He doesn't like my teaching style."

"Oh."

Then a thoughtful look crossed Kakashi's face and he closed Icha Icha. "Naruto, do you have a crayon?"

...oOo...

"Why the hell does he do that?" An angry Iruka complained to his door as he fumbled with his keys. "Turning a mission report in written in _crayon_! The nerve of that guy! Now on top of those papers I have to grade, I'm the one stuck rewriting this damned report!"

He pushed his door open angrily and the hinges creaked in protest. But he caught the doorknob before the door could slam into the wall behind it. Then he sighed and kicked off his shoes.

Iruka had briefly considered attempting to track the elusive ex-ANBU down, but soon realized that he'd probably fail. Then he debated: eat first or rewrite first? After a moment's thought while searching for a black pen, -_because mission reports are official documents and are supposed to be written in BLACK INK_- he decided to eat while grading. He'd do the report after.

So the chunnin opened up his refrigerator and sighed. Barely anything in it. He really needed to do some shopping. Then he went searching through his cabinets. Eventually, he found some instant ramen. So five minutes later, Iruka was sitting on his couch with the living room tablein front of him so he could grade papers and eat ramen. Then there was a knock at his door. Expecting Naruto, he pulled $10 out of his pocket so the hyperactive blond could go buy his own ramen.

He got up wearily and crossed his fluffy carpet, not even bothering to look in the peephole. However, it wasn't Naruto at the door. It was our favorite Icha-reading copy-nin. But Iruka didn't know this yet. Because there was no one at the door.

The chunnin was bewildered, but then figured it could just be a student playing a prank. Iruka rolled his eyes and closed the door, shaking his head. Then the knocking sound came again. From the... Window? He looked at the big window on his living room wall in confusion.

It was dark outside, and the window was like a black mirror. Iruka couldn't see, so he grabbed a kunai from his weapons pouch, (which he had yet to remove) and advanced toward the window warily. He quickly slid the window open and took a defensive stance. However, upon seeing it was only Kakashi, he lowered the sharpened weapon.

"You should really use the door! I was ready to stab you with this!" He said, as if he was a student that needed chastizing.

Kakashi slipped gracefully in through the small frame. "It seems as if you atill are."

"Oh, sorry." Iruka lowered the kunai, then remembered the report. "Hey! Do you think it's acceptable to turn a mission report in that was written in crayon? Bright orange crayon?"

"I invite myself into your living room and you harp on me about the mission report?" The jounin raised an eyebrow, but he looked rather amused.

"Well... I... Uh... What do you want?" He abruptly changed the subject.

"My mission report." He said it as if it were obvious.

Iruka was perplexed. "Why?"

"I need my shopping list."

"Your shopping list?" The other repeated blankly.

"You know, when you have to buy too many items to remember so you write them down." He spoke very slowly and wrote with an imaginary pen onto his palm.

Iruka was thoroughly ticked off at being spoken to like he was five. But if Kakashi did what he thought he did... "Don't even tell me you..." He trailed off then ran to the table behind her.

Upon flipping the sloppy report over, he discovered... A shopping list.

Iruka stormed back to the window.

"You need to rewrite this! Now!" He shoved the now slightly crumpled piece of paper under Kakashi's masked nose.

The chunnin realized that the pervert must have been reading Icha Icha in his absense, as he was now trying to slip the bright orange book discreetly back into his pocket. Iruka was gone for all of three seconds and it was _obviously_ the perfect time to whip that book out.

"Rewrite the whole mission report or just the shopping list? Because I just need the list."

Iruka silently counted to five. "You are _not_ leaving until you rewrite the whole report."

A sly smile crossed Kakashi's face. "Was that an invitation to stay the night? Don't you think this is rather sudden? I wouldn't usually pursue a chunnin..." Then the copy-nin gave Iruka the once over followed by an approving look.

The latter blushed fiercely. "Thats not what I- " he cut himself off once he realized that that was the reaction that the jounin wanted. "Fine! Whatever, I'll just rewrite it." He withdrew his hand that held the report.

"How kind of you! May I have my list _now_? Or at least copy it over?" Kakashi pulled a black pen and some paper out of a pocket.

Now Iruka fumed silently. Now_ he finds a black pen! _Now_ he finds paper for his shopping list! Writing in _orange crayon_! Like that orange book! I was gone all of three seconds and he was reading that book? Then he tries to hide it! Does he think I'm stupid? I'll show him who is the stupid one here! _The teacher eyed the pocket that Icha Icha disappeared into.

Iruka simply replied as calmly as he could: "No. You can't have it. If you still want it tomorrow, then feel free to come ask me for it _nicely_."

The grin of the infamous copy-nin faltered. "Why?" He wasn't counting on being denied.

"Because _I _adhere to the rules, and the rules say I have to be done with this tomorrow. There are no rules saying that your shopping must be done tonight." It was said with the air of finality that only teachers and mothers can muster.

"Do you want my company so badly? First you ask me to stay the night, then you practically_ force _me to come back tomorrow." Kakashi taunted with a grin.

The chunnin blushed once again before sharply retorting: "No one is _forcing_ you to do anything."

The pervert just climbed onto the windowsill and was about to jump when Iruka grabbed his arm. "No one is forcing you to do anything except use the _door_."

Normally Kakashi would shrug the hand off and jump out the window anyway, however the current company was gripping his arm with the same hand that the kunai was in. Seeing as Iruka was holding the badly crumpled mission report in the other hand. Not even Kakashi would test the speed of a ticked off teacher with a kunai. So no attempt to escape was made as he was led to the door; Iruka's grip never relenquishing.

"Night." Kakashi said with a grin before the door was shut. Then he chuckled to himself. Now he had spoken to Iruka and nothing had changed. So Naruto could drop it.

It wasn't until Kakashi got home that he realized his copy of Icha Icha was missing. Then the silver-haired pervert laughed.

"Looks like he got me this time." He muttered to no one in particular.

...oOo..

The next day Kakashi was summoned to the Hokage's office. It was a nice morning and the jounin was tempted to walk, since the summons wasn't urgent, but he would probably quickly get bored of walking without Icha Icha. It puzzled Kakashi slightly as to how a simple chunnin could get the book away from him without him noticing. He never felt any hand touch his pocket but one can't ever know, his guard was down.

In the end, the copy-nin decided to use his teleportation jutsu to get to Tsunade's office. Outside, at the door of course. Showing up at_ Iruka's_. window was one thing, but showing up at _Tsunade's _window -Hokage or not- would be another.

"Come in." A voice from inside said before he could knock.

Kakashi walked into the room with hands in his pockets. "Have I been assigned a mission?"

"No." She started with a disguised look of venom in her eye, "But you have been assigned to do a mission _report_."

From her position behind her desk, she held up a perfectly written report. It was completed neatly in black pen, presumably in Iruka's handwriting.

"Is there something wrong with it?" He asked, as if it was his own and he couldn't understand what was wrong with his hard work.

"Yes." Still holding the report up, she turned it to display the back.

To Kakashi, who was too far away to read it, the back looked like a mess of orange. However, he freed his hands from his pockets and stepped forward. Written on the back, in orange crayon, was a shopping list. And it wasn't his own.

"First off, this is too neat to be your writing." Tsunade leaned her head on her other hand.

He sighed and decided it was best to get the confession over with now. "Umino Iruka wrote it."

"And you actually expected him to do it." She stated, laughing.

"Yes. But why are _you_ the one addressing me about this?" Was the blunt answer.

The Hokage stopped laughing and said a little more seriously: "Let me explain something to you. If you irritate Iruka badly enough, he can prove to be a decent match for even you. Because if it is anyone other than me, then I doubt it will get done."

Kakashi's hand drifted to the pocket from which Icha Icha had been stolen yesterday night. "I'm aware."

"Good. So now you are going to rewrite this. Neatly. The _first_ time."


	2. Since He Had Nothing Better To Do

After Iruka stole Icha Icha from Kakashi the night before, he kept expecting the silver-haired pervert to come back in his sleep and slit his throat. Every creak from his apartment in the night made him jump; the reason as to why he didn't get much sleep was obvious. It was sometime around 5 in the morning that Iruka gave up on sleeping. He got up early and got ready for school. The teacher was on his way out the door when he was stopped in his tracks by grocery bags. Full of groceries. Then the surprised chunnin remembered his shopping list that he wrote on the back of the mission report. Apparently Kakashi saw it.

Iruka picked the bags up and brought them inside his apartment. He put all the groceries away, but he felt like he was forgetting something on his way out the door. He checked for his keys, lesson plans, weapon pouch, hitai-ate. He seemed to have everything. However, he remembered last-minute before he shut his door about the tests that he graded last night. Iruka realized that he hadn't finished grading them due to Kakashi's appearence at his window.

Even though he still felt like he was forgetting something, he shut and locked his door before making his way to work. The day was uneventful. Iruka was able to finish grading the tests and hand them back to his students. Everything was going fine until 12:30, Iruka's lunchbreak. It was then that the teacher realized that the thing he forgot was his lunch.

Iruka leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He still expected a certain Icha-reading jounin to show up and demand for his book. But the chunnin was so tired... A few minutes nap couldn't hurt. It's not like he could even stand talking to Kakashi if he was tired. Iruka put his head down on the desk, using his arm as a pillow. His class would wake him up...

...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...

Upon finally rewriting the mission report himself, Kakashi was incredibly bored. He had already trained with his team, he had no mission, Iruka was working, and Icha Icha was missing. It was really too bad that the jounin's new favorite pastime was working, because he really did need his book back. Then the idea of dramatically entering the teacher's classroom and making a scene while pestering him for the book was entertained. And the more the idea was thought through, the more entertaining it became.

So Kakashi found himself walking to the academy. There was no rush, Iruka would be just as irritated now or an hour from now. Unless the chunnin's patience was wearing thin due to his students. The jounin internally shrugged. He would probably wear the teacher's patience down anyway.

Kakashi strode into the school as if he knew what he was doing, then wandered around aimlessly until he found the targeted classroom. He lightly gripped the doorknob, grinned, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open with a good show. He stopped the mini-army of pre-genin in their tracks. Kakashi quickly analyzed the situation. Iruka was asleep on his desk and his class was approaching him with varying looks of meanness to curiousity; but now all eyes were on him. The copy-nin let the deep breath out as a sigh. Then he realised the doorknob behind him and closed the door.

"What are all of you doing?" Kakashi said it as if it were mildly entertaining to him.

But the class wasn't fooled. "It was all her idea! She said Iruka-sensei was hers to write on! She wouldn't let any one else write on him!"

A girl with an uncapped orange sharpie was pushed into Kakashi's line of view.

"Thats not true!" She declared. "/He/ was gonna steal Iruka-sensei's hitai-ate!"

"Actually, all of them declared Iruka-sensei as their own personal doodlepad." A small boy from the middle clarified.

"Hmm. Is that so?" The jounin's tone suggested amusement. No one dared to nod or shake their head.

"Well, either way all of you should be ashamed of yourselves!" His tone abruptly changed to anger and disgust. "All of you standing here will be fellow shinobi one day, if you're lucky. But if all of you are so ready to feed your teammates to the wolves, then none of you even deserve luck! And that man," he pointed to Iruka, "has been kind enough to dedicate his time to teach this to you."

Kakashi walked forward and took the orange sharpie from the accused girl's hand. Then he walked over to Iruka's desk, rolled up the teacher's sleeve, and wrote four letters with the permanent ink.

"Besides, Iruka-sensi is mine. And if I hear that any of you have given him trouble, you will have me to deal with."

The class started nodding fiercely, with scattered words of "understood." And "yes, sir."

"Good." The jounin stated, with a nod of his own. "Now go back to your seats, and let him sleep."

They practically tripped over one another in their hurry.

Before Kakashi left, he turned to Iruka again and kissed him on the cheek. Then he faced the surprised class and touched two fingers to his hitai-ate. The class didn't know it, but it was some sort of miracle that they got to see Kakashi use the door on his way out.

...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...

There was a strange warmth on his cheek when Iruka woke up. The teacher sat up to rub his eyes then touch his cheek. When he did he noticed something brightly colored on his forearm. He held the arm out and read: MINE. It was written in neon orange marker and it stood out nicely on his skin.

"Who wrote this?" He asked, rotating his arm for his students to see.

There was silence for a moment before:

"It was Kakashi-sensei." A small boy answered.

It was thanks to Iruka's limitless patience that he didn't slam his hand onto the desk and swear loudly.

"Right. Thanks." He addressed his class stiffly.

"Iruka-sensei?" A girl began tentatively..

"Yes?"

"Do you like Kakashi-sensei?"

Iruka was caught off-guard by the question but he replied: "Of course. He is very important to the village, and is an excellent ally. Why do you ask?"

"Because Kakashi-sensei really seems to like /you/." Then she giggled nervously. The rest of the class followed suit. But they still all looked scared.

Iruka made a mental note to ask Kakashi what he said (or did) to his class. /He probably just came to get his book. Wait! The book!/ The teacher tried to check the pocket that he had designated for the little orange book without his class noticing. It was still there. So what was Kakashi doing? It irritated him to ponder it. But he still had a class to teach, so he stood up, stretched, apologized for falling asleep and continued with the lesson.

...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...

Iruka was entering his apartment when he got an opportunity to question the elusive jounin. He was once again about to open his door when:

"Hey Sleeping Beauty!" Kakashi greeted him cheerfully, coming up behind him.

"So you were going to use the door this time?" Iruka replied in a cold tone, without even looking up.

"Well that just hurts!" The pervert's voice dripped with false offense. "Be grateful to your savior."

"Savior or not, what did you say to my class?"

"You ask what I did to your class before you ask about your arm and why I kissed you. I'm starting to think that you enjoy my company more than you'll admit."

Iruka blushed deeply as Kakashi shifted his weight to lean on the doorframe. Now he stood a little closr to the chunnin than was necessary, and the calm, collected school teacher was finding it difficult to insert his key into the lock. Eventually, the frustrated chunnin gave up and replied: "What you said to my students /is/ in fact more important than what you did to me."

Then he turned to face Kakashi with his arms crossed.

"Well you should thank me anyway. As your oh-so-innocent class was about to use you as a doodlepad, I walked in to make a scene and demand that you fork over my book. I even used the door! However, I heard that one of your students thought you were hers, so I corrected that you are /mine/, then wrote so on your arm."

Iruka glared at him in disbelief. "That's all you said to them? And didn't you just say something about kissing me?" He managed to make it to the word 'kissing' before he blushed.

"Oh yes," Kakashi grinned, "I simply told your class that if they bug you then they will have me to contend with. /Then/ I kissed you. I actually wanted my book back, however I forgot to take it on my way out."

"Where did you kiss me?" He remembered the warmth on his cheek, but he wanted to be sure. If it was anywhere else besides his cheek, he would have some explaining to do to his class' parents.

Kakashi shifted his weight again and Iruka instinctually backed up, but found his back to the solid wood of a locked door. The jounin was really much to close for comfort. A gloved hand planted itself on the door above Iruka's shoulder. The other hand went to uncross Iruka's arms. Through the cloth of a long-sleeved shirt, Kakashi traced the letters 'MINE' that were previously written on the other's arm.

"I kissed you..." He moved his face to within inches of the startled teacher's face. "Right..." Then Kakashi grinned, poked Iruka's cheek with the hand that was on the door, and kissed said cheek once again. This time he allowed his masked lips to linger to feel the fire from the blush that was sure to follow. "... Here." But then Kakashi slid his lips over an inch, so his masked mouth just barely touched the corner of Iruka's slightly parted lips.

Then he foound what he was looking for. The jounin removed his hand from the door, and his other hand which had mysteriously migrated to the teacher's torso.

Kakashi retreated about 3 feet. Sometime between Kakashi letting go of him and his backing up, Iruka detached himself from the door to shout, "Hey!"

However Kakashi used the now-familiar teleportation jutsu to escape.

Iruka was left dumbstruck. He slumped with his back to the door again. He was angry and yet confused. /What on Earth possessed Kakashi? Unless.../

The irritated chunnin checked his pockets. Sure enough, Icha Icha was gone. /He must've done that just to get the book./

The thought burdened his mind heavily as he stood up straight to make another attempt at unlocking his door.

/Would I be disappointed if the answer was yes?/

...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...

Kakashi was up early the next morning. This was unheard of; for the infamous copy-nin to get up early. Anyone who saw the silver-haired shinobi ninji at 6:45 in the morning, awake, up, and relatively cheerful, would do a double take and check to see if their eyes were working correctly. The sole reason for Kakashi being up was Iruka. The jounin felt bad for his previous behavior. (No he didn't, he just didn't want Iruka to be mad at him.) So Kakashi was awake, and ready to intercept the chunnin who would soon be on his way to work.

But there was someone waiting to intercept /him/. It was a messenger from the Hokage. An urgent messenger. Now that the incident with his previous mission report had been cleared up, another mission had been assigned to him. Now Kakashi was torn. Was he going to be late going to the Hokage and face Tsunade's wrath, or would he leave for an undisclosed amount of time, and have to face Iruka's wrath. In the end, he decided that Tsunade's wrath could be withstood.

Thankfully, Iruka passed by 5 minutes later.

"Morning." Kakashi said cheerfully, falling into step beside the teacher.

"Morning." Iruka replied. The jounin was amused to see a faint blush creep up the chunnin's cheeks.

"I'm here to apologize for my behavior last night." He tried to sound sincere.

"I don't think you're sorry. At all."

Kakashi grinned; the teacher was sharper than he looked. "Be that as it may, I originally came here to ask you to dinner."

The jounin's companion faltered a step but continued to walk at a steady rate.

"You /originally/?" Iruka stretched the word out.

"Yup. It appears that I have the details of an urgent mission waiting for me at the Hokage's office."

Something in the way that the statement was worded tipped Iruka off to the fact that he still had yet to report to Tsunade.

"So you're not in the Hokage's office right now because you wanted to apologize and tell me your /original/ reason for meeting me."

"That sounds about right. However, upon further thought, I've decided to take you out to dinner when I get back."

"Do I have a choice in this?"

"No. Would you mind?"

"No, it's fine." Iruka said quickly, "Just pick me up whenever you get back or get a message to me of where you want to meet or something. And get going! It was no use asking me to dinner if Tsunade is going to kill you! And thank you for those groceries the other day. I kept forgetting to thank you."

Kakashi grinned again. "Ok. Oh, and Iruka?"

"Huh?" The chunnin stopped walking to turn to Kakashi

"It's a date."

Before Iruka could protest or agree, Kakashi once again vanished. The chunnin rolled his eyes, then realized that he had just been asked out by a jounin. Kakashi, no less. He also didn't fail to notice that said jounin used his name without a honorific. That is a very intimite thing to call someone.

/Does apologizing mean regretting what he did? He didn't deny not being sorry though. I didn't even get to ask if he did that just to get his book./ Iruka looked up at the rising sun and sighed. /I wonder how long he'll be gone.../


	3. That Orange Crayon Again!

During Kakashi's absence Iruka's life went back to normal. He hated it. Everyday was so exruciatingly normal, it drained him. There was no perverted jounin to come and annoy him while he was trying to teach. No barely legible mission reports to sort through. In fact, every time a nice neat mission report was handed in, he would sigh. Eventually someone asked him why. Iruka gave him an honest answer: "Because I wish a friend of mine was here to take an orange crayon, and screw all of these up, so I would have an excuse to chase after him for it!" Needless to say, no one asked after that.

The teacher was usually pretty good at hiding things from his students, however even they were starting to notice that something was wrong.

"Umm, Iruka-sensei?"

"Yes?" He was writing on the board.

"We went over that on Monday."

Iruka stopped writing and examined the board. The student was right. He dismissed them for an early lunch so he could get his act together. /Why the lesson plans from Monday?/ He sat down and thought for a few minutes. The answer came to him. Kakashi left Monday; that was five days ago. His mind seemed to be stuck on the day of when he left. The chunnin checked his lesson plans twice. Iruka was sure that he had it right this time.

He sighed again. There was this half-hope lurking in his mind that the copy-nin will show up in his class again and cause trouble. Actually that Kakashi would come back and do /anything/! In the few days where Iruka and Kakashi had actually spoken on a regular basis, the chunnin had really come to depend on the brief company. He could get through a day just fine before Kakashi decided to mess with his life, he wasn't even lonely! But now... A day was hard to get through.

/There is no way I got that attached to someone in just a few days!/ Iruka kept telling himself that over and over again. Very recently, every time he told himself that he would also wonder: /Did Kakashi get this attached to me?/ A part of him hoped so. Then another part sincerely hoped not because it /hurt/. A lot.

His class came back and he touched the arm where Kakashi had written 'MINE' on it. This was a fairly recent habit, whenever he really started to miss the Icha-reading pervert, he would trace the letters on his arm. He couldn't even fully appreiciate that his class' training was coming alone really well. They had a sudden interest in trying to help eachother out. Especially when in weapons training. Everyone was more than willing to help a weaker member deflect attacks, and help them with various jutsu.

Iruka sighed again when he saw his class coming up the hall back from lunch. He stood up and opened the door for them. Before everyone sat down, a girl asked him: "Do you miss Kakashi-sensei?"

At the name 'Kakashi-sensei' the class perked up and went very quiet waiting for Iruka's answer.

"As I said, Kakashi is my friend and ally. Of course I miss him."

The girl looked up at him with big eyes. He tried to smile, he really did, but the girl seemed to catch on to something in his eyes. She looked up at him for another moment before she patted his arm.

"I'm sure he misses you too, Iruka-sensei."

Then she scurried back to her seat. The whole class was still watching him, waiting for his next move. But he simply picked up on his lesson plans where they had /actually/ left off.

Friday passed into Saturday and Iruka almost went to class instead of the mission desk. His thoughts always seemed to be centered around Kakashi. Any other shinobi would say he was on auto-pilot, and they wouldn't be wrong. Before now, the silver-haired pervert drove him crazy; now the chunnin was driving himself crazy.

A couple hours in, a thought struck him.

What if Kakashi had hurt himself?

Iruka was holding a pen at the time and in a failed attempt to stop his hand from shaking, he accidentally broke said pen. The ink splattered all over him and the paper he was writing on. Iruka sighed again, but this time it was in irritation. A shinobi that he couldn't put a name to but recognized from somewhere walked up to him.

"I think that you could use a break. Go home and rest, I'll cover your shift."

Iruka tried to decline the generous offer when several other people started agreeing with the first shinobi.

"Isn't this what you've been teaching our kids after all?" One said.

"Yeah my kid came home sometime last week, I think it was, and started talking about how we're all shinobi and comrades and co-workers so we all need to help eachother out." Piped another.

Iruka ran his fingers through his ponytail. He didn't remember ever succeeding in teaching them any teamwork lesson. It always seemed to go in one ear and out the other. At least he could name some of the shinobi now. They were the parents of his students.

"My son said that he needed to appreiciate you more. Then he said the same to me! So I guess we'll all cover your shift." The man and the three others started to laugh.

Part of him wanted to stay here and try to keep his mind off Kakashi, but another part (probably the logical part) said that he needed to go home and get some sleep. Not that Iruka would admit it, but he had recently taken up sleeping on the couch. The first time that the jounin ever showed up was at the window in his living room. It wasn't like Iruka was specifically waiting for Kakashi, every sound from the living room in the night made him hopeful. So after a couple nights of getting out of bed every time there was a particularly loud noise coming from his living room or a window, he just slept on the couch. And still didn't sleep well. Not that he would even expect Kakashi to come to him first.

So in the end, he agreed to go home. His three kind co-workers gently slapped his back and shook his hands when he stood up. He thanked them all repeatedly before trying to get the stain out of his uniform in the employee bathroom. He didn't want people to stare as he was making his way home. But the walk home seemed to allow his mind to wander more than anything. Even though the concept of Kakashi getting seriously injured seemed remote, it was still possible. Sometimes no amount of skill can overcome numbers.

/I shouldn't be so worried, I don't even know if what he's doing is dangerous./

It only occurred to him sometime later that that could possibly be why he was so worried.

The walk did little to help the state of his mind. Maybe he would run into Naruto, that would keep the chunnin's mind off of Kakashi. Iruka sighed again and went back to tracing the letters on his arm. No one that he passed on his way was really noticed, however, if he had been paying attention, he would see that everyone seemed to notice him.

He wasn't completely oblivious though.

/It would be much easier to get on with my day if everyone would stop reminding me why I'm sad!/

Just when Iruka thought all the stares would make him lose it, Pakkun ran up to him.

"Pakkun?" The chunnin was shocked to one of Kakashi's small nin-dogs.

"Yup. Kakashi wanted me to tell you that he should be back around Monday afternoon."

Iruka silently thanked the gods that may be. This time when he sighed it was a sigh of relief. /Kakashi is alive!/

"Thank you so much Pakkun!"

"Eh, no problem." The nin-dog shrugged the best he could.

Before Iruka could ask if Kakashi was in one piece, Pakkun scampered off again.

But the chunnin set off at a new pace. Kakashi was coming back.

...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...

The following two days were only slightly less agonizing for the chunnin who was practically holding his breath in anticipation of the jounin's return.

There was no way he could concentrate on Monday and he knew it. So he scheduled a game day outside for his class. Upon being asked why, he said it was for their sudden improvement in teamwork.

The plan didn't quite work out; around 10 in the morning it began to rain. That is an understatment, it was /pouring/. Not a soul was to be seen out on the streets, and the rain pounded so hard against the windows, there was fear that the glass would shatter. So needless to say there was no outside game day.

But Iruka allowed the students to have their game day indoors. Three hours passed without incident, beyond a couple bloody noses. And the teacher was really enjoying his students have fun. Some were playing board or card games and others were practicing their jutsu.

Around 1 in the afternoon things perked up. The chunnin looked up from healing a student due to a minor papercut, to see a certain silver-haired jounin tapping on a window. Everyone's attention was drawn to the scene with exclamations of: "Look! He came to see Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka barely held in his relief, and joy. He signaled for the copy-nin to come in, but the jounin seemed bent on making Iruka come outside.

He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. He made a show of slowly unfolding it, then pressing the side with writing on it to the window so Iruka could see it. It unmistakably a blank mission report. Then he flipped it over, still pressed against the window, so the side with the writing was facing him. A crayon was pulled out of a pocket next. The bright orange wax stood out clearly against the dark background.

Kakashi made a scene of slowly putting the tip of the crayon to the blank mission report. Iruka lightly smacked his forehead, probably out of exasperation. He smiled though. /Same old Kakashi./ Then he held up his index finger to the jounin, in the classic 'one moment' gesture.

"I'll only be a moment." Iruka told his class, as he headed out the door. He managed to walk out of the classroom calmly enough, but once out of sight of his students, he fled down the hall. It was thanks to his training that he could run silently, until he ran headlong into a soaked silver-haired jounin.

"You know," Kakashi began "If you wanted a hug, you could've asked."

But Iruka didn't even have to ask. Even though the copy-nin was hit at a dead run, he remained unmoved and simply embraced the surprised chunnin. After a moment Iruka hugged him back. They stood there for a moment before the teacher pulled away to look Kakashi up and down.

"Well you appear to be alive and well."

"Not quite... Are you any good at healing?"

"What are you thinking! If you want a healer to the hospital!"

"If I had wanted to go to the hospital, then I would already be there."

"What do you expect me to do?"

Kakashi thought for a moment. "Not take me to the hospital."

"That doesn't help at all."

Just then Pakkun walked past the two shinobi from the direction that the jounin had come in from. The small nin-dog kept walking over to Iruka's classroom, and in through the slightly open door. Iruka glanced at Kakashi before going after him.

"I am one of Kakashi's nin-dogs, my name is Pakkun. Your sensei has urgent business to attend to elsewhere, so I'll be watching you." He announced from the desk.

A student raised his hand. "Pakkun-san, Iruka-sensei isn't ours. Kakashi said that he belongs to him."

"That is beside the point. I'm reporting to both of them after though."

Kakashi had come up behind Iruka and Pakkun gestured for both of them to get going. The teacher was not at all happy to leave his class like that, but there was only an hour left of school and the class suddenly seemed subdued when they heard that Pakkun would be reporting to Kakashi. Besides now he had a different kind of immature mentality to deal with.

"Can you walk to my apartment?" Iruka asked the injured ninja.

"I don't think so, but I have a better idea." Kakashi wrapped his wet arms around Iruka again, and the chunnin got his first experience with a teleportation jutsu.

They ended up in Iruka's living room. The chunnin was slightly light-headed but he shook it off quickly. He caught Kakashi just in time before he hit the floor.

"God damnit!"

He was fine a minute ago so the only thing that was wrong with him was chakra depletion. And whatever injury he aquired on the mission. But the chakra depletion meant instant rest and no time for a hot shower, so he'd have to fight hypothermia the old-fashioned way.

He shut the shades on all his windows.

He took Kakashi's shoes off, then had to take a deep breath and remind himself that this was for his own good before he took the rest of Kakashi's clothes off. He left him with briefs and his mask. But Iruka decided that the mask could restrict the jounin's breathing, so he slid that off too. He still didn't look at the jounin's face, he didn't have to look very hard to find the injuries.

Three long, ragged gashes were branded across Kakashi's chest. They were just barely scabbing over, and oozing pus slightly. Iruka deposited the jounin in his bed, then ran to the bathroom to get a wet washcloth. On his way back, he turned the thermostat up to 90F.

He gently cleaned the gashes with the soft cloth. That would help fight infection. Then he carefully placed his hands on the gashes. He was no medical ninja, but working in a class of 10 year olds tends to teach you the basic medical procedures. When Iruka was satisfied that the jounin was healed as much as he was going to be, there were only three ragged, definitely irritated, stripes of skin. A couple layers of skin were replenished over them at least.

Iruka wrapped Kakashi up in a bunch of blankets. Then Iruka changed into some thin clothes. He would have to keep Kakashi warm, and he didn't think the jounin would appreiciate waking up in the teacher's bed with both of them half naked. So Iruka settled for the thin clothes.

Before settling into the blankets, the chunnin noted that the gashes would make it painful for Kakashi to breathe if he was on his side. The jounin wasn't awake to hear Iruka's line of thought though. He probably wouldn't have listened even if he was awake. About a half an hour after the chunnin had first crawled under the covers, the sleeping pervert decided to spoon himself against his helpless bedmate.

/This would probably be more enjoyable if I wasn't afraid he'd die in his sleep./

However, the chunnin still manged to fall asleep. Upon doing so, he relaxed into Kakashi's arms...

...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...

Kakashi was the first to wake up. The last thing he remembered was collapsing in Iruka's living room, and the first thing he realized was that he was waking up in Iruka's bed. With Iruka securely in his arms. He pulled away slightly to look at his chest. The gashes were only halfway healed, but they looked clean. And he certainly wasn't cold anymore. Maybe he wasn't cold because he was wrapped up in blankets, wearing only his boxers, and probably snuggled with Iruka half the night. The thought made him grin.

Then he realized he wasn't wearing his mask. He shrugged it off; Iruka was bound to see him without it anyway. As if the chunnin knew that the copy-nin was thinking about him, Iruka snuggled closer then let out a contented sigh.

Kakashi smiled to himself. /So Iruka did miss me./

Then Kakashi thought it was slightly unfair that Iruka was still fully clothed while he was almost completely naked. But he realized that this wasn't the time.

Iruka stirred. "Hey glad you're still alive." He said groggily. Similar to Kakashi, he realized that they had basically been glued together. He sat up hurriedly, a blush already vivid on his cheeks.

"So am I. Thank you, Iruka." He said seriously.

"It's fine." Iruka muttered as he detangled himself from the many blankets. When he finally got free, he walked stiffly to a bureau on the other side of the room and pulled out a long pair of jeans from one drawer and a plain black T-shirt from another drawer. Then he tossed them to Kakashi.

"Here. They're probably all I have that will fit you, sorry."

Kakashi just stood up and slipped the impromtu outfit on. Iruka turned his back on the jounin while he got dressed, even though he was the one to undress him the previous night. He didn't hear the copy-nin approach, but a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and a chin rested on his shoulder.

"You know that it's fine to look at me without my mask right?"

Iruka didn't reply, he just turned to look at the face that was using his shoulder as a headrest. There was a scar running down his left eye, the eye with the sharingan, but other than that it was a handsome face.

"Wasn't so difficult was it?" Kakashi asked while he snuggled the side of Iruka's neck. The chunnin found himself relaxing into the silver-haired man's arms once again. "I still owe you dinner."

Iruka looked at the clock on his bedroom wall. 11:30. Sunlight was peeping through the slits of the shades, brightening the room considerably. It promised to be a nice day. "How about you just buy me lunch somewhere near here. Because you are not going to teleport anywhere for a few days without passing out."

"Hmmm fair enough." Kakashi released the chunnin. "I'll let you get dressed in peace." Then he walked out of the room.

Iruka chose a dark red shirt and another pair of jeans. /I wonder if Kakashi and I are officially more than friends./ Iruka examined himself in the mirror above his bureau. He'd look presentable if he fixed his ponytail. After he tamed his hair, he grabbed Kakashi's mask for him, and went to meet him in the kitchen.

"Hey Kakashi, you forgot this."

"Kakashi... That is a very intimate thing to call me, Iruka." He teased.

"You're the one who called me Iruka."

Kakashi walked closer to the teacher. This time, Iruka didn't move. The jounin looked at the shorter man for a moment before pulling him flush against him with one arm; the other hand was tracing the line of Iruka's jaw.

"You don't seem to mind."

"No, not really. And if you're going to kiss me, then please do it already."

Kakashi happily obliged. It was very soft at first, after a few seconds, Kakashi felt Iruka smile and took that as an invitation to let the kiss go deeper. He pulled away for just a moment to get a better angle, and Iruka thought that Kakashi had finished so he opened his mouth to protest. Kakashi had to smile at that, he was no where near done. His tongue traced the bottom lip of the open mouth. No time was allowed for the chunnin to protest, as the tongue was now slowly sliding into the mouth. Iruka wouldn't have protested anyway, his own tongue was now rubbing Kakashi's vigorously. At some point Iruka's tongue slipped past Kakashi's to invade his mouth.

The jounin was irritated at losing his first battle for dominance, not that he was inexperienced, he pushed Iruka up against a wall and pinned his hands down as his tongue attempted to work it's way down the shorter man's throat. Iruka's hands were pinned above his head, and remained that way even after both of them stopped for breath. However Kakashi still appeared to not be finished. He tried to slip a knee between Iruka's legs...

"Hey I wanna eat first!" Iruka protested.

"You won't stop me? I can wait, believe it or not" Kakashi sounded surprised as he removed his knee.

"You just have to wait until I'm done eating." Iruka freed his hands and kissed Kakashi gently.

"You'll be stuck with me forever, after." The jounin warned.

Now Iruka grinned. "I believe that you have already claimed me as yours." He tapped his arm where the letters MINE were still written in neon orange.


End file.
